Dictionary learning based image reconstruction

ABSTRACT

A computationally efficient dictionary learning-based term is employed in an iterative reconstruction framework to keep more spatial information than two-dimensional dictionary learning and require less computational cost than three-dimensional dictionary learning. In one such implementation, a non-local regularization algorithm is employed in an MBIR context (such as in a low dose CT image reconstruction context) based on dictionary learning in which dictionaries from different directions (e.g., x,y-plane, y,z-plane, x,z-plane) are employed and the sparse coefficients calculated accordingly. In this manner, spatial information from all three directions is retained and computational cost is constrained.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.62/234,064, entitled “2.5D Dictionary Learning Based Computed TomographyReconstruction”, filed Sep. 29, 2015, which is herein incorporated byreference in its entirety for all purposes.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

This invention was made with Government support under contract numberHSHQDC-14-C-B0048 awarded by the Department of Homeland Security. TheGovernment has certain rights in the invention.

BACKGROUND

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to tomographicreconstruction, and in particular to the use of multi-dimensionaldictionary learning algorithms.

Non-invasive imaging technologies allow images of the internalstructures or features of a patient/object to be obtained withoutperforming an invasive procedure on the patient/object. In particular,such non-invasive imaging technologies rely on various physicalprinciples (such as the differential transmission of X-rays through thetarget volume, the reflection of acoustic waves within the volume, theparamagnetic properties of different tissues and materials within thevolume, the breakdown of targeted radionuclides within the body, and soforth) to acquire data and to construct images or otherwise representthe observed internal features of the patient/object.

All reconstruction algorithms suffer from reconstruction artifacts suchas streaks and noise. To reduce this artifacts, regularization basedmethods have been introduced. However, there are often trade-offsbetween computational-efficiency, dose, and image quality. Therefore,there is a need for improved reconstruction techniques, particularly inthe low-dose imaging context.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimedsubject matter are summarized below. These embodiments are not intendedto limit the scope of the claimed subject matter, but rather theseembodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of possibleembodiments. Indeed, the invention may encompass a variety of forms thatmay be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.

In one implementation, a reconstruction method is provided. Inaccordance with this method a set of projection data is acquired from aplurality of views around an imaged volume. An iterative reconstructionof the set of projection data is performed by solving an objectivefunction comprising at least a dictionary-based term. Thedictionary-based term employs dictionary learning that employs two ormore dictionaries each comprising at least some two-dimensional imagepatches oriented in different directions. A reconstructed image isgenerated upon completion of the iterative reconstruction.

In a further implementation, a reconstruction method is provided. Inaccordance with this method a set of projection data is acquired from aplurality of views around an imaged volume. An iterative reconstructionof the set of projection data is performed by solving an objectivefunction comprising at least a dictionary-based term. Thedictionary-based term employs dictionary learning that employs at leastone dictionary comprising two-dimensional image patches oriented indifferent directions. A reconstructed image is generated upon completionof the iterative reconstruction.

In another implementation, an image processing system is provided. Inaccordance with this implementation, the image processing systemincludes a memory storing one or more routines and a processingcomponent configured to access previously or concurrently acquiredprojection data and to execute the one or more routines stored in thememory. The one or more routines, when executed by the processingcomponent: perform an iterative reconstruction of a set of projectiondata by solving an objective function comprising at least adictionary-based term, wherein the dictionary-based term employsdictionary learning that employs one or more dictionaries comprisingtwo-dimensional image patches oriented in different directions; andgenerate a reconstructed image upon completion of the iterativereconstruction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood when the following detaileddescription is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in whichlike characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting components of a computed tomography(CT) imaging system, in accordance with aspect of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts an example of a dictionary for use in a dictionarylearning approach, in accordance with aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts a process flow for a sparse coding process by whichsparse representation coefficients are estimated, in accordance withaspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts a dictionary training process flow, in accordance withaspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts example of images and sample patches used in respective2D, 3D, and 2.5D dictionary learning approaches, in accordance withaspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts a process flow corresponding to an iterativereconstruction using a global dictionary, in accordance with aspect ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts a process flow corresponding to an iterativereconstruction using an adaptive dictionary, in accordance with aspectof the present disclosure;

FIG. 8a depicts a baseline reconstructed image using filteredbackprojection, infinite mA, and 1100 views;

FIG. 8b depicts a reconstructed image using filtered backprojection, 20mA, and 1100 views;

FIG. 8c depicts a reconstructed image using filtered backprojection, 20mA, and 100 views;

FIG. 9 depicts reconstructed images and residual images using dictionarylearning approaches and based on settings used in FIG. 8b , inaccordance with aspect of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 10 depicts reconstructed images and residual images usingdictionary learning approaches and based settings used in on FIG. 8c ,in accordance with aspect of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effortto provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all featuresof an actual implementation are described in the specification. Itshould be appreciated that in the development of any such actualimplementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerousimplementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve thedevelopers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related andbusiness-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation toanother. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a developmenteffort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be aroutine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those ofordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure

While aspects of the following discussion are provided in the context ofmedical imaging, it should be appreciated that the present techniquesare not limited to such medical contexts. Indeed, the provision ofexamples and explanations in such a medical context is only tofacilitate explanation by providing instances of real-worldimplementations and applications. However, the present approaches mayalso be utilized in other contexts, such as the non-destructiveinspection of manufactured parts or goods (i.e., quality control orquality review applications), and/or the non-invasive inspection ofpackages, boxes, luggage, and so forth (i.e., security or screeningapplications). In general, the present approaches may be desirable inany imaging or screening context in which high-resolution images aredesirable.

One reconstruction technique used in CT imaging is iterativereconstruction. Use of iterative reconstruction techniques (in contrastto analytical methods) may be desirable for a variety of reasons. Suchiterative reconstruction methods are based on discrete imaging modelsand provide a variety of advantages, such as being based on realisticmodeling of the system optics, scan geometry, and noise statistics. As aresult, iterative reconstruction techniques thus often achieve superiorimage quality, though at a computational cost. For example, model-basediterative reconstruction (MBIR) is a reconstruction technique whichiteratively estimates the spatial distribution and values of attenuationcoefficients of an image volume from measurements. MBIR is anoptimization problem whereby a reconstructed image volume is calculatedby solving an objective function containing both data fitting andregularizer terms which in combination control the trade-off betweendata fidelity and image quality. The data fitting (i.e., data fidelity)term minimizes the error between reconstructed result and the acquireddata according to an accurate model that takes the noise intoconsideration. The regularizer term takes the prior knowledge of theimage (e.g., attenuation coefficients that are similar within a smallneighborhood) to reduce possible artifacts, such as streaks and noise.Therefore, MBIR is tolerant to noise and performs well even in low dosesituation.

With respect to the regularizer, Total Variation (TV)-minimizationalgorithms are often used as a regularizer in MBIR. However, imagesreconstructed with this constraint may lose some fine features andcannot distinguish true structures and image noise. Recently, dictionarylearning (DL) approaches have been applied as a regularizer for low-doseCT reconstruction due to the ability of this approach to keep localstructures and reduce noise. For example, in the image prior term of thereconstruction function, a dictionary learning formula may be employedinstead of a conventional function based on pairwise neighboringinteraction. Thus, in such a scenario, the reconstruction function willhave a data fidelity term and a dictionary learning-based prior modelingterm.

With the preceding introductory comments in mind, the approachesdescribed herein may be suitable for use with a range of imagereconstruction systems that employ dictionary learning a part of thereconstruction. To facilitate explanation, the present disclosure willprimarily discuss the present reconstruction approaches in oneparticular context, that of a CT system. However, it should beunderstood that the following discussion may also be applicable to otherimage reconstruction modalities and systems as well as to non-medicalcontexts or any context where an image is reconstructed fromprojections.

With this in mind, an example of a computer tomography (CT) imagingsystem 10 designed to acquire X-ray attenuation data at a variety ofviews around a patient (or other subject or object of interest) andsuitable for performing image reconstruction using MBIR techniques isprovided in FIG. 1. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, imagingsystem 10 includes a source of X-ray radiation 12 positioned adjacent toa collimator 14. The X-ray source 12 may be an X-ray tube, a distributedX-ray source (such as a solid-state or thermionic X-ray source) or anyother source of X-ray radiation suitable for the acquisition of medicalor other images.

The collimator 14 shapes or limits a beam of X-rays 16 that passes intoa region in which a patient/object 18, is positioned. In the depictedexample, the X-rays 16 are collimated to be a cone-shaped beam, i.e., acone-beam, that passes through the imaged volume. A portion of the X-rayradiation 20 passes through or around the patient/object 18 (or othersubject of interest) and impacts a detector array, represented generallyat reference numeral 22. Detector elements of the array produceelectrical signals that represent the intensity of the incident X-rays20. These signals are acquired and processed to reconstruct images ofthe features within the patient/object 18.

Source 12 is controlled by a system controller 24, which furnishes bothpower, and control signals for CT examination sequences, includingacquisition of two-dimensional localizer or scout images used toidentify anatomy of interest within the patient/object for subsequentscan protocols. In the depicted embodiment, the system controller 24controls the source 12 via an X-ray controller 26 which may be acomponent of the system controller 24. In such an embodiment, the X-raycontroller 26 may be configured to provide power and timing signals tothe X-ray source 12.

Moreover, the detector 22 is coupled to the system controller 24, whichcontrols acquisition of the signals generated in the detector 22. In thedepicted embodiment, the system controller 24 acquires the signalsgenerated by the detector using a data acquisition system 28. The dataacquisition system 28 receives data collected by readout electronics ofthe detector 22. The data acquisition system 28 may receive sampledanalog signals from the detector 22 and convert the data to digitalsignals for subsequent processing by a processor 30 discussed below.Alternatively, in other embodiments the digital-to-analog conversion maybe performed by circuitry provided on the detector 22 itself. The systemcontroller 24 may also execute various signal processing and filtrationfunctions with regard to the acquired image signals, such as for initialadjustment of dynamic ranges, interleaving of digital image data, and soforth.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, system controller 24 is coupledto a rotational subsystem 32 and a linear positioning subsystem 34. Therotational subsystem 32 enables the X-ray source 12, collimator 14 andthe detector 22 to be rotated one or multiple turns around thepatient/object 18, such as rotated primarily in an x,y-plane about thepatient. It should be noted that the rotational subsystem 32 mightinclude a gantry upon which the respective X-ray emission and detectioncomponents are disposed. Thus, in such an embodiment, the systemcontroller 24 may be utilized to operate the gantry.

The linear positioning subsystem 34 may enable the patient/object 18, ormore specifically a table supporting the patient, to be displaced withinthe bore of the CT system 10, such as in the z-direction relative torotation of the gantry. Thus, the table may be linearly moved (in acontinuous or step-wise fashion) within the gantry to generate images ofparticular areas of the patient 18. In the depicted embodiment, thesystem controller 24 controls the movement of the rotational subsystem32 and/or the linear positioning subsystem 34 via a motor controller 36.

In general, system controller 24 commands operation of the imagingsystem 10 (such as via the operation of the source 12, detector 22, andpositioning systems described above) to execute examination protocolsand to process acquired data. For example, the system controller 24, viathe systems and controllers noted above, may rotate a gantry supportingthe source 12 and detector 22 about a subject of interest so that X-rayattenuation data may be obtained at one or more views relative to thesubject. In the present context, system controller 24 may also includesignal processing circuitry, associated memory circuitry for storingprograms and routines executed by the computer (such as routines forexecuting image processing techniques described herein), as well asconfiguration parameters, image data, and so forth.

In the depicted embodiment, the image signals acquired and processed bythe system controller 24 are provided to a processing component 30 forreconstruction of images in accordance with the presently disclosedalgorithms. The processing component 30 may be one or more general orapplication-specific microprocessors. The data collected by the dataacquisition system 28 may be transmitted to the processing component 30directly or after storage in a memory 38. Any type of memory suitablefor storing data might be utilized by such an exemplary system 10. Forexample, the memory 38 may include one or more optical, magnetic, and/orsolid state memory storage structures. Moreover, the memory 38 may belocated at the acquisition system site and/or may include remote storagedevices for storing data, processing parameters, and/or routines forimage reconstruction, as described below.

The processing component 30 may be configured to receive commands andscanning parameters from an operator via an operator workstation 40,typically equipped with a keyboard and/or other input devices. Anoperator may control the system 10 via the operator workstation 40.Thus, the operator may observe the reconstructed images and/or otherwiseoperate the system 10 using the operator workstation 40. For example, adisplay 42 coupled to the operator workstation 40 may be utilized toobserve the reconstructed images and to control imaging. Additionally,the images may also be printed by a printer 44 which may be coupled tothe operator workstation 40.

Further, the processing component 30 and operator workstation 40 may becoupled to other output devices, which may include standard or specialpurpose computer monitors and associated processing circuitry. One ormore operator workstations 40 may be further linked in the system foroutputting system parameters, requesting examinations, viewing images,and so forth. In general, displays, printers, workstations, and similardevices supplied within the system may be local to the data acquisitioncomponents, or may be remote from these components, such as elsewherewithin an institution or hospital, or in an entirely different location,linked to the image acquisition system via one or more configurablenetworks, such as the Internet, virtual private networks, and so forth.

It should be further noted that the operator workstation 40 may also becoupled to a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) 46. PACS46 may in turn be coupled to a remote client 48, radiology departmentinformation system (RIS), hospital information system (HIS) or to aninternal or external network, so that others at different locations maygain access to the raw or processed image data.

While the preceding discussion has treated the various exemplarycomponents of the imaging system 10 separately, these various componentsmay be provided within a common platform or in interconnected platforms.For example, the processing component 30, memory 38, and operatorworkstation 40 may be provided collectively as a general or specialpurpose computer or workstation configured to operate in accordance withthe aspects of the present disclosure. In such embodiments, the generalor special purpose computer may be provided as a separate component withrespect to the data acquisition components of the system 10 or may beprovided in a common platform with such components. Likewise, the systemcontroller 24 may be provided as part of such a computer or workstationor as part of a separate system dedicated to image acquisition.

The system of FIG. 1 may be utilized to acquire X-ray projection datafor a variety of views about a region of interest of a patient toreconstruct images of the imaged region using the projection data. Inparticular, projection data acquired by a system such as the imagingsystem 10 may be iteratively reconstructed using a 2.5D (i.e.,multi-direction 2D) dictionary learning-based iterative reconstructionas discussed herein.

As noted above, dictionary learning approaches may be desirable for usein iterative reconstruction approaches due to their de-noising effectsnot being based on local voxel values, unlike other approaches that useneighboring voxel values to suppress noise. Instead dictionary learningapproaches look for similar or common regions in a given data set orreference volume to build the “dictionary”, which is thus non-local innature and can be used to identify common or repeated structures and tode-noise based on the known structural similarities. In this mannerdictionary learning enables local image blocks to fit to arepresentation using a few elements (i.e. the “atoms” described below)from an overcomplete dictionary to capture or describe structures.

As used herein, a dictionary is a collection of “atoms”, where each atomis a learned image patch, as discussed in greater detail below. Anexample of a dictionary 70 is shown in FIG. 2. A dictionary 70 consistsof a collection of atoms 72. Each atom 72 is a column in the dictionary70 and image patches used to learn such a dictionary 70 can berepresented by the linear combination of such atoms 72, with a smallnumber of atoms having non-zero coefficients. An image patch in such acontext is a relatively small image such as, for example, an 8×8 image.In order to learn the dictionary 70 (as discussed in greater detailbelow), image patches can be sampled from the original patient/objectimages or from other sources, such as reference images.

In such dictionary learning approaches, local image blocks from anacquired image are described by a linear sum of learned atoms 72 (imageblocks containing or depicting basic structural elements or features).The coefficients of this linear expression are referred to as sparsecoefficients (α_(s)), since only a sparse number of them are non-zero.Conceptually, the atoms 72 constitute the words or basic patterns of thedictionary 70 to which regions in an iteratively processed image arecompared or decomposed into as part of the regularization process. Inthis sense, dictionary learning assumes sparse representation (asdenoted by sparse representation coefficient α_(s)) of signals (i.e.,images). Using an overcomplete dictionary 70 (denoted as D herein) ofconstituent image features or components, signals are described bysparse linear combinations of the dictionary elements (i.e., atoms 72).

By way of example, in operation dictionary learning may attempt tominimize the number of non-zero sparse representation coefficientsand/or minimize the fitting error between extracted local patches of asampled image and the corresponding dictionary representations. That is,in a dictionary learning implementation, the algorithms may attempts tominimize the number of unmatched region and to minimize the fittingerror of modeled patches. A high level example of sparse coding by whichsparse representation coefficients α may be estimated for an input image(x) 74 using a dictionary (D) 70 is shown in FIG. 3. In this example,local image patches R_(s) 76 (e.g., non-overlapping image patches) areextracted and the mean value (DC) is extracted (step 78) from each patch76. A determination (decision block 80) is then made for each patch 76whether the variation is less than ε or greater than or equal to ε. Ifless than ε, the sparse coefficient α_(s) is 0 (step 82) (i.e., thevariation is encompassed by the DC value). If greater or equal than ε,orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is used (step 84) to obtain the sparsecoefficients α_(s) in accordance with:

min ∥α_(s)∥₀   (1)

subject to

∥R _(s) x−Dα _(s)∥²<ε  (2)

where α_(s) is the sparse representation coefficient, R_(s) is a localimage patch extracted at pixel s, D is an overcomplete dictionary, x isthe input image, and ε is target error. The sparse representationcoefficients α_(s) are determined (step 86) to all input patches 76.

The sparse representation coefficients α_(s) determined as shown in FIG.3 may be used as part of a dictionary training process as shown in FIG.4, which may be an aspect of the dictionary learning approachesdiscussed herein. As shown in FIG. 4, a dictionary D 70 as used hereinmay be trained (such as using the K-SVD algorithm) as part of an initialand/or ongoing part of the dictionary learning process. This trainingstage is based on assumption that all the patches can be linearrepresented by the column (atom) in the dictionary with only a sparsenumber of atoms having a non-zero coefficient. This is the shown inequation (3)

$\begin{matrix}{{\min\limits_{D,\alpha}{\sum\limits_{s}{{{E_{s}\mu} - {D\; \alpha_{s}}}}_{F}^{2}}} + {\sum\limits_{s}{\lambda {\alpha_{s}}_{0}}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

where parameter λ controls the sparsity of the learned coefficientsα_(s). In one implementation, the K-SVD algorithm may be used to learnthe dictionary and calculate the sparse coefficients.

In the depicted example of FIG. 4, the dictionary training processinvolves providing both an initial dictionary (Discrete Cosine Transform(DCT)) 90 and a set of collected image patches 92 (e.g., 8×8 imagepatches) for training from which the mean value (DC) has been extracted.Based on the image patches 92 and initial dictionary 90, the sparsecodes α_(s) are updated, such as using the OMP method described above,at step 94. Based on the updated α_(s), the initial dictionary atoms maybe updated (step 96) one by one, such as by minimizing:

∥x−Dα∥_(F) ²   (4)

to generate the updated dictionary 98. Keeping in mind the above, thedescribed sparse coding and dictionary learning approaches may be usedwith the present approaches as part of both developing and/or updatingthe dictionaries employed.

Conventional dictionary learning processes typically employtwo-dimensional (i.e., 2D) dictionary learning since the image blocksemployed are two-dimensional and run in the same direction. One wouldexpect that performance may be improved by incorporating spatialinformation across slices. The intuitive solution would be to cropthree-dimensional (3D) patches to train the dictionary, and calculatethe sparse coefficients for each three-dimensional patch later. Such aprocess may be characterized as three-dimensional dictionary learning.However, computational cost for three-dimensional dictionary learning issignificantly higher than what is required for two-dimensionaldictionary learning since the patch sizes are larger and dictionaryatoms are larger as well. In addition, 3D sampling schemes will generatemore patches than would be needed to calculate the sparse codes than inthe 2D case, making the computational cost high for the 3D case.

With this in mind, certain implementations of present approach utilize anon-local dictionary-based algorithm (such as a regularization term) inan MBIR context (such as in a low dose CT image reconstruction context)based on “2.5-dimension” dictionary learning in which 2D dictionariesfrom different directions (e.g., x,y-plane, y,z-plane, x,z-plane) areemployed and the sparse coefficients calculated accordingly. In thismanner, spatial information from all three directions is retained. Since2D dictionaries are of much smaller size than a 3D dictionary, and thenumber of patches generated in 2.5D case will be much less than 3D, thecomputational cost can be reduced.

By way of further illustration, given an image volume, the volume can beviewed from three directions: e.g., front to back, top to bottom, andleft to right, with each direction corresponding to one of dimensions x,y, or z. For any point in the image volume there are threetwo-dimensional (i.e., planar) image blocks that cross this respectivepoint. As discussed herein, in certain implementations two-dimensionalimage blocks are cropped from each direction, and the reconstructedimage will fuse results from different directions. The difference amongthe atoms (i.e., image sub-regions) used in two-dimensional (2D)dictionary learning using images 102 taken in one dimension, inthree-dimensional (3D) dictionary learning using cuboid images 102, andin 2.5D dictionary learning using images 108 found in three directionsare shown in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 5 with respect to images 108viewed associated with different directions, the structures of imagesseen from different directions as well as the number of slices indifferent directions are distinctive, which make the computational costfor each direction different, though far less than the 3D scenario whilestill retaining substantial information in multiple directions. Further,as shown with respect to images 108, images from different directionsare visually distinctive, which demonstrates the value of adding spatialinformation across different directions. In the 2.5 D scenario, multiple2D dictionaries are employed, with different dictionaries correspondingto different (e.g., orthogonal) directions so as to retain some or allof the distinctive spatial information found in different directions. Itmay be noted that, while the three directions shown in FIG. 5 for the2.5D approach are orthogonal directions, in other implementations thediffering directions need not be orthogonal to one another. For example,in one implementation the differing directions may instead be based onlocally identified contours that may be used as normative surfaces whichallow a gradient or contour to be locally followed. One advantage toorthogonal directions, however, is that data redundancy is reduced orminimized.

In this manner, three-dimensional spatial information is kept to a greatextent and the computational cost is less than what is required forthree-dimensional dictionary learning. In addition, as discussed hereinthe parameters for dictionary learning can vary for different directions(i.e., the dictionary learning parameters may be different for one ormore of the dimensions), which allows flexibility of the reconstructionprocess.

By way of explaining the present approach, three differentimplementations are described, though it should be appreciated that thedescribed implementations are merely provided to facilitate explanationand not as limiting examples. In a first implementation, three separatedictionaries D 70 are trained and used, each dictionary corresponding todifferent directions within the imaged volume (e.g., x,y; y,z; x,z andso forth) and consisting of two-dimensional image blocks (e.g., 8×8blocks) cropped from different directions. As for computational cost, aprocess corresponding to this first example will typically needs to workon more 2D patches than conventional two-dimensional dictionary learningwhich works on single direction. However, three-dimensional dictionarylearning would require three-dimensional image blocks (e.g., 8×8×8) forlearning, and the learned dictionary are of larger size since the inputis larger. In addition, in the three-dimensional case, a greater numberof patches would need to be processed. Thus, a process corresponding tothe first example would still be more computationally efficient than athree-dimensional dictionary learning approach for the same volume. Inparticular, experimental results suggest that the three-dimensionalapproach would be approximately ten times slower than thetwo-dimensional approach.

The second implementation uses a single dictionary but includes “atoms”(i.e., included image sub-regions corresponding to common structure,textures, or features) learned from different directions. In this case,the dictionary can be learned just once, which will save learning time,and will encompass atoms found in all three directions. Although in oneimplementation the learned dictionary is fixed at one, it is alsopossible to use different parameters in different directions toguarantee the adaptation of data from different directions based on thelearned dictionary. In this case, the computational cost will be lessthan the first approach described above, and the reconstruction accuracycan be ensured.

The third implementation is to learn a dictionary containing both commonatoms (observed in multiple or all directions) and particular atoms(observed in only one or less than all directions). In particular,common atoms are learned from different directions and those atoms areshared by all the directions. The particular atoms are learnedseparately for each direction, which capture the specificity of localstructures of images in different directions. One advantage of thissolution is that a compact dictionary can be learned, which can furthersave computational cost.

With the preceding example implementations in mind, and as discussedabove, the present methodology incorporates dictionary learning as partof an iterative reconstruction term, such as a regularization term. Forexample, in the context of MBIR, the objective function of MBIR containsboth a data fitting term and a regularization term. Dictionary learningmay be added as a regularizer (or other suitable term) to improve thequality of reconstructed images since it maintains local structures andreduces noise. Therefore, the reconstructed image volume x can becalculated by solving the following objective function:

$\begin{matrix}{\hat{x} = {\arg \; {\min\limits_{x \geq 0}\left\{ {{{y - {Ax}}}_{w}^{2} + {\beta \left\{ {{\sum\limits_{s}{{{E_{s}n} - {D\; \alpha_{s}}}}^{2}} + {\sum\limits_{s}{\lambda {\alpha_{s}}_{0}}}} \right\}}} \right\}}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

where y is projection data, A is a forward projection matrix and w is adata weighting matrix. The term E_(s) is a matrix operator to extractthe s-th block. The matrix D ∈ R^(f×T) is a dictionary which can belearned globally or adaptively (as discussed in greater detail below),and α_(s) ∈ R^(T) is a sparse coefficient vector with sparse non-zeroelements.

In the present approaches, an ordered subsets separable paraboloidalsurrogate (OS-SPS) method may be used to solve the optimization problem,and the j-th image pixel x_(j) is updated iteratively as:

$\begin{matrix}{x_{j}^{n + 1} = {x_{j}^{n} - \frac{\begin{matrix}{{M{\sum\limits_{i \in S_{m}}{w_{i}{a_{ij}\left( {\left\lbrack {Ax}^{n} \right\rbrack_{i} - y_{i}} \right)}}}} +} \\{\beta {\sum\limits_{s}{\sum\limits_{p = 1}^{P}{e_{pj}^{s}\left( {\left\lbrack {E_{s}x^{n}} \right\rbrack_{p} - \left\lbrack {D\; \alpha_{s}} \right\rbrack_{p}} \right.}}}}\end{matrix}}{{\sum\limits_{i}^{I}\left( {w_{i}a_{ij}{\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{J}a_{ik}}} \right)} + {\beta {\sum\limits_{s}{\sum\limits_{p = 1}^{N}{e_{pj}^{s}{\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{J}e_{pk}^{s}}}}}}}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

where M denotes the number of subsets, p ∈ [1, . . . , P] is an index ofan image block and e^(s) _(pj) isan element of E_(s). The dictionarycomponent in the numerator of Equation (5) helps to summarize thereconstruction error by using the dictionary and sparse coefficients,while the dictionary part in the denominator is the counting of thefrequency of the j-th pixel that has been selected for sparse coding.The dictionary D can be learned offline by using patches from a noisefree image volume, and such learning scheme may be referred to as globaldictionary learning. In contrast, the dictionary can also be updatedonline during the iterative reconstruction process, which is referred toas adaptive dictionary learning.

According to how patches are cropped for dictionary learning and sparsecoding, the dictionary learning implementation can be characterized astwo-dimensional or three-dimensional respectively or, in the presentapproach, multi-two dimensional. Turning back to FIG. 5 above, thisfigure shows examples of using different shapes of patches 100 fordictionary learning. For two-dimensional dictionary learning (leftmostexample) each slice (stacked in the z direction in FIG. 5) can beindependently processed and thus can be easily parallelized. Forthree-dimensional dictionary learning (center example), the patches arecropped three-dimensional cuboids 104 that are sampled and processed,which is more time consuming than sampling and processingtwo-dimensional samples 100 since more patches with higher dimensionneed to be processed.

Turning to the rightmost example, in order to speed up the process andretain useful spatial information, the present 2.5D dictionary learningscheme applies two-dimensional dictionary learning on each direction (x,y, and z) respectively as shown in FIG. 5. The cropped two-dimensionalpatches 100 from different directions are distinctive, demonstrating thevalue of incorporating three-dimensional information in dictionarylearning. As for the computational cost, as noted above, processingthree directions in 2D instead of one direction results in approximatelythree times the computational cost compared to the baseline 2Ddictionary learning scenario, assuming that all parameter settings arethe same for each direction and number of slices in each direction isalso the same. In addition, many regions are flat in some directions andthus can be approximated by their average values to save computationalcost even more. The objective function of the proposed algorithm is:

$\begin{matrix}{\hat{x} = {\arg \; {\min\limits_{x \geq 0}\left\{ {{{y - {Ax}}}_{w}^{2} + {\beta \; {\sum\limits_{{i = x},y,z}\left\{ {{\sum\limits_{s}{{{E_{s}^{i}x} - {D^{i}\; \alpha_{s}^{i}}}}^{2}} + {\sum\limits_{s}{\lambda^{i}{\alpha_{s}^{i}}_{0}}}} \right\}}}} \right\}}}} & (7)\end{matrix}$

where the superscript i corresponds to the direction x,y,z. In thisexample, it can be seen that there are three dictionaries for threedirections, which increases the flexibility on parameter selection ineach direction. However, as noted above, in other scenarios orimplementations, less than three dictionaries may be employed whilestill incorporating multi-directional data.

As noted above, generating dictionaries can involve processing one ormore images (e.g., reference images) to identify common patches (i.e.,atoms) that may be base structures in themselves and/or which may becombined to reconstruct observed structures. In the present contexts, aglobal (i.e., offline) dictionary may be constructed once (such as basednoise free patches) and subsequently used in the iterativereconstruction of other images. By way of example, with respect tooffline dictionary learning (referred to herein as “global” dictionarylearning) a sample process is shown in FIG. 6. In this example, a set ofinitial images 120 is provided and image patches are extracted in thedirection or directions of interest (step 122). Sparse codes (α_(s)) arecalculated (step 124) as discussed above using a dictionary 70 trainedoffline (step 126) using noise free, similar image patches.

In addition, in the depicted example, the scan data 130 is data fitted(step 132) with respect to the initial images 120. Based on the fitteddata and the calculated sparse codes, the reconstructed image x for agiven iteration is updated (step 128) and the updated image serves asthe initial image 120 in the next iteration. In such an implementation,calculation of the updated image is in accordance with:

$\begin{matrix}{\hat{x} = {\arg \; {\min\limits_{x \geq 0}\left\{ {{{y - {Ax}}}_{W}^{2} + {\beta {\sum\limits_{s}{{{R_{s}x} - {D\; \alpha_{s}}}}^{2}}}} \right\}}}} & (8)\end{matrix}$

subject to α_(s) being sparse (e.g., min ∥α_(s)∥₀ subject to∥R_(s)x−Dα_(s)∥²<ε.

However, if no suitable global or offline dictionary is available, anadaptive or online dictionary may be employed instead, as shown withrespect to FIG. 7. In such an example, the adaptive dictionary may begenerated from the dataset being analyzed or reconstructed, and thus maybe specific to that dataset, and may be refined or updated eachiteration step, such as to improve performance or to emphasize differentcharacteristics over time. Turning to FIG. 7, with respect to onlinedictionary learning (referred to herein as “adaptive” dictionarylearning) a sample process is shown. In this example, a set of initialimages 120 is provided and image patches are extracted in the directionor directions of interest (step 122). Sparse codes (α_(s)) arecalculated (step 124) as discussed above using a dictionary 70 trainedoffline (step 126) using noise free, similar image patches or simplyusing an initial dictionary calculated by Discrete Cosine Transform(DCT). In addition, in this example, the sampled patches are used totrain (step 140) the dictionary 70 as part of one or more of theiteration steps.

In addition, in the depicted example, the scan data 130 is data fitted(step 132) with respect to the initial images 120. Based on the fitteddata and the sparse codes calculated using the adaptive dictionary, thereconstructed image x for a given iteration is updated (step 128) andthe updated image serves as the initial image 120 in the next iteration.In such an implementation, the updated image is calculated in accordancewith equation (8) above.

As noted above, the present multi-dimensional or multi-directionalapproaches are suitable for various implementations. For example, someof the 2.5 D dictionary learning approaches discussed herein maygenerate or learn three different dictionaries independently, such asseparately generating and maintaining an x,y dictionary, an x,zdictionary, and a y,z dictionary. In such a scenario, each directionaldictionary may be learned and used independently along its respectiveaxis and the results of the three separate reconstructions may beaveraged or otherwise combined to generate the final image. Such anapproach may be particularly suitable in instances where the atoms ineach direction are believed to be distinct or different from oneanother, and would thus benefit from maintaining such distinct andseparate dictionaries.

Conversely, in other scenarios the atoms identified in differentdimensions may be combined, such as by combining the two or all three ofthe dictionaries of the previous example into a single dictionary thatcan be used to reconstruct along all three directions. In such anexample, three separate reconstructions may still be performed (as inthe preceding case), but each reconstruction is performed using the samedictionary. The three separate reconstructions may then be averaged orotherwise combined to generate the final image.

As may be envisioned, hybrid types of approaches may also be employed.For example, part of dictionary construction may involve constructingthree direction specific dictionaries initially and then creating anadditional dictionary having those atoms common to or seen in two-ormore of direction-specific dictionaries. The direction-specificdictionary then would only have those atoms unique to a given directionor dimension. In such an approach the common dictionary and adirection-specific dictionary may be used in the reconstruction of eachrespective axis-specific reconstruction. Such an approach may be furtherrefined by reformulating each direction-specific dictionary to includethe common dictionary plus the respective direction-specific dictionaryso that once again, there are three direction-dependent dictionariesused in the separate reconstructions, but a portion of eachdirection-dependent dictionary is the common dictionary. Thus, in suchan approach, there would be three-direction dependent dictionaries, butthey would not be independently calculated. Also, it is possible tocombine all three dictionary into a single dictionary by concatenate thedictionary atoms in each direction-dependent dictionaries. In order toreduce the redundancy in the dictionary, highly correlated atoms can bemerged into one by averaging them. Therefore, a compact dictionary canbe formulated to further reduce the computational cost.

Experimental Results

With the preceding in mind, a study was performed to evaluate theeffectiveness of the presently described approach. In particular, toevaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms, a simulated phantomwas employed using 180 kVp and 20 mA with axial scan and generating 1100projection views. This data was then down-sampled to 100 views, which isvery challenging for reconstruction. A baseline reconstructed image(FIG. 8a , infinite mA, 1100 views)) from the infinite-dose sinogramusing the filtered backprojection (FBP) algorithm was used as groundtruth data for image quality comparison. FIGS. 8b and 8c shows the FBPresults at different doses and for different numbers of views. As shown,low dose results in noisy reconstructed images (FIG. 8b , 20 mA, 1100views), while a limited number of views make the results even worse(FIG. 8c , 20 mA, 100 views). The FBP results on 20 mA with 1100 and 100views respectively (FIGS. 8a, 8b ) were used as initial inputs for theproposed algorithm for reconstruction.

Computational Cost—One advantage of the proposed 2.5D dictionarylearning approach is the computational efficiency compared to thethree-dimensional dictionary learning. Table 1 lists the time in secondsfor each algorithm in one iteration. Computation was measured on anIntel Core i5-3320M CPU with 4 cores. Note that the computational costdepends on the parameter settings, such as the step size that controlshow many patches are sampled for calculation. Therefore, thecomputational cost is compared for different step sizes.

TABLE 1 Step Size x = 2, y = 2, z = 2 x = 2, y = 2, z = 1 Dimension 2D3D 2.5D 2D 3D 2.5D Time (s) 36 174 70 36 340 106

In Table 1, the step size is defined for each direction (x,y,z)respectively. Smaller step size indicates a greater number of patchesfor calculation. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the2.5D dictionary learning algorithm significantly saves the computationalcost compared to three-dimensional dictionary learning.

Image Quality Quantitative Measurement—For quantitative evaluation ofimage quality, both the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and StructuralSimilarity Index (SSIM) were used for measuring image quality. Theequations for PSNR and SSIM are:

$\begin{matrix}{{PSNR} = {10\mspace{14mu} {\log_{10}\left( {{\max (I)}/\sqrt{\frac{1}{mn}{\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{m - 1}{\sum\limits_{j = 0}^{n - 1}\left\lbrack {{I\left( {i,j} \right)} - {K\left( {i,j} \right)}} \right\rbrack^{2}}}}} \right)}}} & (9) \\{{{{SSIM}\left( {a,b} \right)} = \frac{\left( {{2\mu_{a}\mu_{b}} + c_{1}} \right)\left( {{2\sigma_{ab}} + c_{2}} \right)}{\left( {\mu_{a}^{2} + \mu_{b}^{2} + c_{1}} \right)\left( {\mu_{a}^{2} + \sigma_{b}^{2} + c_{2}} \right)}}{c_{1} = {\left( {0.01 \times L} \right) \cdot {\hat{}2}}}{c_{2} = {\left( {0.03 \times L} \right) \cdot {\hat{}2}}}} & (10)\end{matrix}$

where μ_(a) and μ_(b) are the average of patches a and b respectively,σ_(a) and σ_(b) are variances of a and b, σ_(ab) is the covariance ofa,b, and L is the specified dynamic range value. According to theequation, higher values of PSNR and SSIM indicate better reconstructionresults. In addition, SSIM is consistent with visual perception. Thequantitatively measurement results are listed in Table 2, where the FBPreconstruction results are considered as baseline.

TABLE 2 x = 2, y = 2, z = 2 x = 2, y = 2, z = 2 1100 views 100 views1100 views 100 views PSNR SSIM PSNR SSIM PSNR SSIM PSNR SSIM 2D GDL59.21 0.9703 51.63 0.9079 59.21 0.9703 51.63 0.9079 2D ADL 58.62 0.974951.58 0.9067 58.62 0.9749 51.58 0.9067 3D GDL 61.42 0.9778 52.25 0.922560.89 0.9791 52.59 0.9260 3D ADL 60.36 0.9739 51.18 0.9208 60.12 0.976252.38 0.9209 Hyperbola 60.52 0.9725 52.06 0.9057 60.52 0.9725 52.060.9057 FBP 53.45 0.8493 42.31 0.3471 53.45 0.8493 42.31 0.3471 2.5D GDL62.81 0.9797 53.31 0.9309 62.97 0.9798 53.03 0.9302 2.5D ADL 61.780.9781 53.01 0.9265 61.85 0.9779 53.05 0.9281In Table 2 (and the results discussed below), GDL corresponds to aglobal dictionary learning approach where dictionaries are learned onlyonce, such as from a reference set of images, and shared between datasets. Conversely, ADL corresponds to an adaptive dictionary learningapproach in which dictionaries are generated for each data set, i.e., acustom (e.g., adapted) set of dictionaries is generated for each set ofimages that are reconstructed. As will be appreciated, ADL techniquesare more computationally intensive than GDL techniques, which can use anexisting dictionary. “Hyperbola” is a TV-like regularizer, and itsresult is used as reference.

Experimental results on 1100 views and 100 views were evaluated. Asshown in FIGS. 8b and 8c , the FBP results (i.e., analyticalreconstruction results) contain streaks and noise and MBIR was performedon this noisy inputs. FIGS. 9 and 10 show the iteratively reconstructedimages 150 (top row) and error images 152 (bottom row) using differentdictionary learning algorithms on 1100 views (FIGS. 9) and 100 views(FIG. 10) respectively. Here, error images are calculated as residualimages by calculating the result of the ground truth image (FIG. 8A)minus the respective reconstructed (i.e., top row) image. 2D and 3Drefer to 2D and 3D dictionary learning algorithms, GDL refers to the useof a global dictionary, and ADL refers to the use of adaptivedictionaries. The PSNR and SSIM values are listed in Table 2. Note thatboth the results with step size as 1 and 2 in z-direction have beenlisted.

Low-Dose Results

Experimental results showed that the present 2.5D dictionary basedreconstruction algorithms performed well on the both the 1100 views and100 views. Compared to the FBP results, both the PSNR and SSIM valueswere significantly improved by using the proposed algorithm. Inaddition, the proposed algorithm outperforms the 2D and 3D dictionarylearning algorithms on both test cases. Notably, the PSNR and SSIMvalues of the proposed 2.5D algorithm are even higher thanthree-dimensional (3D) dictionary learning. This may be attributable tothe flexibility in parameter selection for the proposed algorithm. Thereconstruction results in FIG. 10 show that the 2.5D dictionary learningapproach is capable of reducing artifacts while retaining edgeinformation.

A technical effect of these approaches is a computationally efficientdictionary learning-based term, such as a regularizer, in the MBIRframework to keep more spatial information than two-dimensionaldictionary learning and require less computational cost thanthree-dimensional dictionary learning. Another advantage of the proposed2.5D dictionary learning algorithm is the flexibility of the parameterselection. Since the images viewed from different directions are quitedifferent, it is actually useful to use different parameters for theimage blocks that correspond to different directions. However, it is notpossible to realize this kind of flexibility in three-dimensionaldictionary learning. Another advantage of the proposed 2.5D algorithm isthat it reduces the redundancy in the learned dictionary. In thethree-dimensional dictionary learning, it requires 1000 atoms torepresent any 8*8*8 patch. However, there is redundant information sincesome atoms just have small portion of difference. In the proposedalgorithm, 384 atoms will be enough to represent such patch. For theproposed other solutions in this invention, this number can be furtherreduced.

This written description uses examples to disclose the invention,including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the invention, including making and using any devices orsystems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope ofthe invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examplesthat occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intendedto be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elementsthat do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if theyinclude equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differencesfrom the literal languages of the claims.

1. A reconstruction method, comprising: acquiring a set of projectiondata from a plurality of views around an imaged volume; performing aniterative reconstruction of the set of projection data by solving anobjective function comprising at least a dictionary-based term, whereinthe dictionary-based term employs dictionary learning that employs twoor more dictionaries each comprising at least some two-dimensional imagepatches oriented in different directions; and generating a reconstructedimage upon completion of the iterative reconstruction.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the different directions comprise orthogonaldirections.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or moredictionaries comprises three dictionaries, wherein each dictionarycomprises two-dimensional image patches corresponding to a differentorthogonal direction.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or moredictionaries comprise at least a common dictionary comprisingtwo-dimensional image patches present in at least two directions and oneor more direction-specific dictionaries comprising two-dimensional imagepatches present in only one respective direction for eachdirection-specific dictionary.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the twoor more dictionaries comprise two or more direction specificdictionaries, wherein each direction specific dictionary comprises bothtwo-dimensional image patches found in multiple directions andtwo-dimensional image patches present in only one direction specific tothe direction-specific dictionary.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theat least one dictionary comprises an adaptive dictionary generated basedon the set of projection data or images generated from the set ofprojection data.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least onedictionary comprises a global dictionary generated based on a referencedata set.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: performing aninitial analytic image reconstruction on all or part of the set ofprojection data to generate an initial image as an input to theiterative reconstruction.
 9. A reconstruction method, comprising:acquiring a set of projection data from a plurality of views around animaged volume; performing an iterative reconstruction of the set ofprojection data by solving an objective function comprising at least adictionary-based term, wherein the dictionary-based term employsdictionary learning that employs at least one dictionary comprisingtwo-dimensional image patches oriented in different directions; andgenerating a reconstructed image upon completion of the iterativereconstruction.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least onedictionary comprises a hybrid dictionary comprising both two-dimensionalimage patches present in at least two directions and two-dimensionalimage patches present in only one direction.
 11. The method of claim 9,wherein the at least one dictionary comprises a single dictionarycomprising two-dimensional image patches present in three orthogonaldirections.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein the different directionscomprise orthogonal directions.
 13. The method of claim 9, wherein theat least one dictionary comprises an adaptive dictionary generated basedon the set of projection data or images generated from the set ofprojection data.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least onedictionary comprises a global dictionary generated based on a referencedata set.
 15. The method of claim 9, further comprising: performing aninitial analytic image reconstruction on all or part of the set ofprojection data to generate an initial image as an input to theiterative reconstruction.
 16. An image processing system, comprising: amemory storing one or more routines; and a processing componentconfigured to access previously or concurrently acquired projection dataand to execute the one or more routines stored in the memory, whereinthe one or more routines, when executed by the processing component:perform an iterative reconstruction of a set of projection data bysolving an objective function comprising at least a dictionary-basedterm, wherein the dictionary-based term employs dictionary learning thatemploys one or more dictionaries comprising two-dimensional imagepatches oriented in different directions; generate a reconstructed imageupon completion of the iterative reconstruction.
 17. The imageprocessing system of claim 16, wherein the one or more dictionariescomprise three dictionaries, wherein each dictionary comprisestwo-dimensional image patches corresponding to a different orthogonaldirection
 18. The image processing system of claim 16, wherein the oneor more dictionaries comprise at least a common dictionary comprisingtwo-dimensional image patches present in at least two directions and oneor more direction-specific dictionaries comprising two-dimensional imagepatches present in only one respective direction for eachdirection-specific dictionary.
 19. The image processing system of claim16, wherein the one or more dictionaries comprise two or more directionspecific dictionaries, wherein each direction specific dictionarycomprises both two-dimensional image patches found in multipledirections and two-dimensional image patches present in only onedirection specific to the direction-specific dictionary.
 20. The imageprocessing system of claim 16, wherein the one or more dictionariescomprise a single dictionary comprising two-dimensional image patchesrepresentative for three orthogonal directions.